Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-04-06
The Melody Of Nature.

All the animals on land, quadrupeds
and bipeds, have their charact' ristic
voices and calls in distinct intervals,
says a writer in Longmau's Magazine.
Of our domestic animals the COW gives
perfect fifth and an octave or tenth. The
dog barks in fifth or fourth. The
donkey in coarse voice brays in perfect
octave. The horse neighs in descent
on the chromatic scale. The cat, when
excited at night on the roof or in the
garden, may howl over an extended com
pass, and at times gives cries like those
of an infant.
The hens, geese and ducks in farm
yard chatter in pleasing chorus, and
proud chanticleer crows piercing solos
between, in the diminished triad and
seventh chord.
The birds in bushes and trees, in gar
dens and woods, sing most beautiful
tones in exact intervals, even in melodi-
GUS chords and in measured time.
Animals of the same species vary in
their musical gift, as they do in other
points. Some animals are very fond Of
music and greatly affected by it, while
others are insensible or quite averse to
it. The intervals we observe most in
the voices of animals are tifths, octaves
and thirds, and also fourths and sixths.
The human voice, in speaking, uses
also these intervals foremost, but it
moves also over most of the other inter.
walls in melodious and harmonious COM
binations. We speak in melodies and
harmonies, improvising them by the i'm
pulse of our thoughts and feelings over
an extent or compass of one and one
half to two octaves. As every plant
grows with q certain color, so every
sentence is spoken in some melody
which rises in sympathy with the sense
and sentiment of the words, giving char.
acter to the whole sentence; and from
the quality and accent of this musical
investment, the truth and sincerity OF
the words may be felt, and the character
of the speaker may be traced.
Sentences are spoken in certain mus.
ical key, and are mostly begun on the
fifth or dominant of the scale of the
keynote, from which they descend in
seconds or thirds or other intervals to
the keynote, aud, maybe, down the
lower dominant. Or they begin
on the keynote and move to the
dominant, or they ascend from the dom.
inant to the octave, and to the ninth
and tenth. Many expressions are be-
gun on the sixth as on leading tone to
the dominant. The voice moves mostly
up and down in the principal scale and
chord, and in their relative harmonies,
and frequently dwells on introducing
tones from above or below to tone of
any of these chords.
tai and favorite key in which be gen.
erallysspeaks, but which he often trans.
poses higher or lower in sympathy to
other voices, and he is excited. In di.
vine service, at church, have heard
the minister begin in his natural key,
and the choir sing the response in a
higher key, when the minister, possess
irg musical ear, gradually rose to the
tone of the choir. lin one instance the
minister began the communion service
in E fiat, and the choir and organ gave
the response in F. The minister grad.
ually raised his voice. and by the fourth
commandment met the tone of the choir,
wherein he continued to the end.
In ordinary conversation the different
voices speak in the key of B fat, B or c.
persons with soprano or tenor voices
moving in the upper part of the scale.
and alto and bass voices holding to the
lower part of the same, and the replies
turning often to the dominant or sub
dominant.
Friendly conversation keeps mostly to
the key of the principal person of the
circle, who, at the time. gives not only
the moral and social tone, but also
the musical tone to all around
him, and if any one of the
company would speak in q differ.
ent tone. he would be out of tune and
out of countenance with the Others.
When we read by ourselves we speak
in c, or in B fiat, or lower still; but
when we read to others we raise our
voice to the fourth or fifth of our own
key, that is, to G. or F or L fiat.
We ought to study and exercise our
voice in the different keys in which we
may have to speak, through the whole
extent of our voice, to enrich it with an
easy flow of variety of tones, so as to
match our words and sentences with
suitable melodieus turns, to render
them fervid and impressive, to touch a
vibrating cord of sympathy and interest
in our hearers.